Australia's Vanished Beasts
Giant Goanna
Megalania prisca
You would not want to have run into
a hungry giant goanna. For one thing, its kind was huge: experts have estimated
that the largest M. prisca for which
there is some fossil evidence was 23 feet long and weighed about 1,350 pounds.
That's about eight times the mass of the living Komodo dragon, which the
giant goanna may have resembled in basic ecology and behavior. Like the Komodo,
it may have lurked in undergrowth before ambushing prey—such as the
diprotodontid downed at a waterhole in this illustration—then ripped
apart its victim with its large, serrated teeth. (Its genus name means
"great ripper.")